Former Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater has been ordered to pay $475,000 to businessman Matthew Blomfield after losing one of the country’s longest-running defamation cases.
In an excoriating High Court judgment released on Wednesday, Justice David Johnstone concluded Slater had facilitated a personal vendetta against Blomfield by using stolen documents to produce defamatory blog posts.
Justice Johnstone ordered Slater and his defunct company Social Media Consultants Ltd to pay nearly half a million dollars to Blomfield, who first launched the defamation proceedings 11 years ago.
The judge concluded Slater, via posts on his Whale Oil blog, acted in “flagrant disregard” of Blomfield’s rights.
Slater made a series of blog posts in 2012 accusing the businessman of illegal and immoral behaviour.
Justice Johnstone observed Slater was bankrupted nearly five years ago and Social Media Consultants was placed into liquidation.
“The case has since remained on foot primarily for the purpose of offering Mr Blomfield, if proven, some level of personal vindication.
“That vindication now resides in the award of compensatory damages”.
The judgment said Slater had based his blog posts on material left in an office by Blomfield, who complained to police the blogger was using stolen property to produce the articles.
Justice Johnstone said he was not aware of Whale Oil ever complying with a court order to identify the person who had given him the stolen material.
When making that order, Justice Raynor Asher said Whale Oil obtained the materials illegally and the unlawful disclosure was driven by a personal vendetta.
“In light of the evidence put before me, including in particular the nature of the posts themselves, I have no difficulty finding that to be the case, and that Whale Oil knew it,” Justice Johnstone said in his judgment.
“Further, the way in which the posts misrepresented the material establishes that Whale Oil chose to facilitate that personal vendetta by way of its defamatory post series, on occasions knowing its allegations to be false, and on others being at least reckless as to their falsity.”
Blomfield, speaking to the Herald after the judgment’s release, said he was pleased two High Court Judges now agreed the material Slater used was stolen.
While he did not believe there was any chance of him seeing a cent of the damages awarded, he was happy with the outcome of the judgment.
“It’s one of the largest defamation awards in New Zealand history, so that’s a good result,” he said.
“It’s a shame that it has taken 12 years.”
Matthew Blomfield finally beat the bully!
Matthew stood up to the most venomous cyber bully Troll NZ has ever known, Cameron Slater, and Matthew won.
Despite Slater colluding with Blomfield’s business partners to destroy him and despite Slater magically receiving a stolen computer with all Blomfield’s personal emails details, despite a violent home invasion that saw Blomfield beaten and his house shot at, despite the humiliation and torture Slater forced upon him, Matthew Blomfield refused to back down.
He refused to be intimidated.
He took Slater to Court for defamation and despite all the legal tricks and delays Slater could muster, Matthew won and in the most delicious karma ever, ended up owning the entire Whaleoil blog.
In an age where online bullying is rife and septic Trolls like Slater usually triumph, Blomfield stood up and showed real courage and tenacity.
That kind of bravery deserves recognition and should be celebrated.
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May be that vile bastard Slater can run to Auntie Judith for help.
…or to John Key and his mates!!!
Yep, was thinking that phone (y) friend John Billingsgate Key might be good for a couple of fish heads…
Justice would see Slater in jail, or a psychiatric institution. He is either extremely mentally disturbed or one of the most disgusting people on God’s earth
In fact both works for me.
Whaleoil beef hooked ? Yep…totally fucked!
I have no idea why Slater isn’t charged for the slander and persecution of Blomfield, whose life became a living nightmare. Surely a crime has been committed here.
@Lone Comet – Slater should also be charged with being in possession of stolen property, namely the stolen material he worked from to slander the courageous Mr Blomfield. I am told that being in possession of stolen property is a crime.
It’d be nice to see justice done for this. I hope that Blomfield will be going after Cameron’s hideous co-conspirator for her misappropriation of the internal customer database of the original blog, to advertise their cringy new Breitbart/Times of Israel knockoff.
“Blomfield stood up and showed real courage and tenacity.”
It wouldn’t have been a cheap process.
Our system puts huge financial hurdles in front of anyone seeking justice.
It needs reform, but as it’s in the Crown’s financial interest to not do so, so reform can go begging.
There is an appeal process.
Hopefully Slaters other defamatory blog post site BFD will be shut down having to pay out Mathew Bloomfield, after all his site is not the right to have an opinion, it’s just another sleazy defamatory blog post site.
Slater Oil has been chastised at last. Good grief, it is recorded in Hansard from the NZ Parliament that SirKey was a late night telephone confidant of the fat fuck. Slater and his filthy blog was sometimes issued with early releases of OIAs pertaining to John Keys office according to Nicky Hager’s “Dirty Politics”. Key admitted to scheduling OIAs for political advantage.
Blomfield may well not receive a cent but good on him anyway. Slater is an Israeli supporter too! having taken several freebies to suck up to that vicious Apartheid State.
My congratulations to Blomfield. You did the Lord’s work, especially true from an atheist.
Hager kicked Whaleoil in the nuts and off the way of democratic debate, and Blomfield has taken the ‘orrible man’s money. Good shit.